 Welcome everybody to the December 13th 2021 Rochester Select Board meeting and we have advertised it publicly in three places and on the website and emailed it to interested parties so we satisfy that open meeting law requirement and we have, if anyone has any comments they want to make afterwards we'll have five minute increments to do so and we'll start out with the minutes from the November 22nd Select Board meeting. Does it look good to you guys? I have right then. Yeah they look good to me. I have a move to approve. I second it. All in favor? All right, all right. And we also have the meetings from the emergency meeting minutes that we piggybacked on with the warned budget and finance committee meeting to award the mowing and sidewalk contract and that looked good to me. Also I move to approve those. I second. All in favor? All right, that's okay. And we have, as a guest is Diane with us on Zoom. Not yet? All right, so we'll wait for her. She sent an email. She wasn't going to be attending. Oh, she's not attending. Okay, so basically we're, she is volunteered to be the representative for research of the EV level three charger for the town. I thought we had to approve it too. Anyway, I approve of Diane's volunteering to work on behalf of the Select Board for that, you guys? Can I just look at that? Yes. With what that conversation is about, and this jump friend deal with it now, is the Green Mountain Power has offered to sponsor a level three charging station in the town of Rochester on town property. And they want to have a conversation about where that would be likely appropriate to do. And in my mind, thinking about it probably right outside the town clerk's office here is that is as good a spot as any. The only drawback with that might be doing that if that requires three phase power, they'll have to run three phase power from the street up to the end of this street here. The only other places we have three phase that I can think of that would be non flood plain would be the school right off the bank there where you drive into the school to the right. And there's three phase at the telephone building and there's three phase down here. So telephone building is not really our property? It is, because we own between the sidewalk and the road. The park is considered everything from the sidewalk through the park. Its acreage is four acres, but there's only like two and a half maybe that's actual grass. All the rest is the roads. So that's an option, but I don't think it's really the right option. I think this would be a good spot if they would be willing to run three phase out here. So would we need to change the rules of a parking lot or no charging after 10 o'clock? Yeah, we'd have to do something like that. There's no parking after 10 o'clock, but I guess if they're sitting in their car at a charging station that would be an exception. Should be noted that we can't park here after 10. Or we could change the rule on something like that for EV parking could be extended hours. What is a level three? That's a fast charge. Fast? I believe so. I don't know that for a fact theory, but I would say it probably does. Jeff Gephardt is saying yes, and he has something to add to his conversation too if he could. Go ahead, Jeff. I spoke with Diane earlier because she had not been aware of green mountain powers reaching out to us. And so I don't know whether she still is interested in working on that. I did provide her with time coming up on Wednesday at 2 30. I believe we're meeting at the town clerk's office for that. I didn't see where the meeting was to occur, but I'm assuming GMP is coming down to meet with us at that time. Is that correct? Is that Wednesday or Thursday? That on my calendar for Wednesday. We have a budget meeting on Wednesday at three. I will go back to the email. And try to determine that. About other business. Yeah. Might be good to get another day there, Jeff, if we could, because that budget finance meeting starts at three. And everybody here has to attend. I would like to attend that EV with green mountain. So is Diane teacher was not aware of that green mountain power. Do you know if she's still interested in working with us on that or is that she. This is renders her her efforts. redundant. Well, I don't know that it necessarily would take her away from working on it. I know that Maureen Gannon was also interested in working towards getting charging improvements in Rochester. So, you know, I'll check with the members of those two members of the energy committee and see if they're comfortable teaming up or, you know, or want to work on something else as a result. All right, well, I guess. Should verify it whether it's Wednesday or Thursday and if it is Wednesday, maybe we could push that off to Thursday. But I guess if they're there, they're scheduled since they're the ones putting the bill for this. I'll contact them tomorrow and see if they can reschedule for Thursday. If not, and, you know, my. Take notes and. Yeah. Yeah, that would be okay with that. Jeff, do we know if this charging station is going to charge all electric cars or just certain types. I don't know if there's any charging station that can do all EVs at this point in time. So we just want to be transparent that if this charging station does not do Tesla's let's say, you know, we want to be clear about what we're installing. Yeah, and I don't know whether they're thinking of two types one type, or, you know, what the status is I've been hearing rumors of adapters coming down the pike. Yeah, a lot of a lot of people in general public don't realize that they're there are different chargers for different powers. Excuse me, could I ask a question. Sure. If Jeff or whoever else is involved in this would keep me in the loop as far as what's going to happen if a decision is made about when this is going to when and where it's going to be, you know, the charging station and what type and all that kind of stuff like you said, you know, because I'd like to do an article about it I think it'd be very interesting for people. And also, like Patty mentioned, you know, if, if we could find out, you know, if I could have, you know, eventually in my in an article, you know, what types of cars could be charged etc etc, you know, I think it would make a good article and be very informative for people in town. Absolutely. And GMP is looking to get some PR out of this as well. Thank you. All right. I think Nancy had her hand up to do you have something Nancy. Oh, I was just going to say, um, we could move the budget meeting perhaps to five o'clock if that would help. No, let's not do that. Let's keep that. We could also, Jeff, you could also, you could also ask Green Mountain Power if they could come at two instead of 230 because it shouldn't really take that long to have this conversation with them. I wouldn't think. Right. Okay. All right, to be continued, I guess we'll know more after these after that meeting. So we've got Joan is not here tonight, but we do have an update from her. I'll read that. And she last Friday she filed the reimbursement request for the large project close out with the state for the second part of our road repair work referred to by FEMA as incomplete roads and cross drains. This covers all work done in 2020 and 2021, which is which was completed on October 15 of this year. Total cost of this work is $157,466 and 51 cents and attached is the state's letter to this is the state's letter to the state certifying the close out. Probably the state's letter to FEMA certifying the close out and asking FEMA to approve it. She does not know when we'll see this reimbursement though it seems to be moving faster than her previous submission for complete roads and cross drains, which was submitted in November 3. There's one more submission she'll be making for this project, which is category Z for administrative costs and she's been told were approved for a maximum reimbursement in that category of $25,000. Which she believes is based on a percentage of our total costs and her time alone on that project and probably will be that much. And she's moving on next to the easements for the West Hill Bridge and the backup generator bid and that's Joan's report for tonight. So that's be nice to see some of that money come back from FEMA that's been a long project. Excuse me, used to easements for the generator and. The easement would be for the West Hill Bridge, not easement for the backup. It's for the bid for the backup generator. For the town office. Thank you. Yeah. Anybody have any questions for me as Joan? No. Okay. Tony, welcome. Thank you. The library is still doing porch pickup. And we have a trustees meeting tomorrow at six o'clock. And that's on Zoom or at the library. And I know we, you and I had a conversation. You're expressing your concern that the library doesn't fall along the wayside and the queue for repairs to town buildings. But the, I think that, didn't we know anything about that meeting for the grants from the historical preservation folks? What is, do you know when we'll hear from them about that? I don't. I think that was way too soon now. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. The meeting went pretty well. I thought, you know, the gals went through the place. I have reservations about going through this historical part of it. I think that's going to make the project be quite costly and looking at how the building was constructed. There might be, and Jeff also had something to say about that to me anyway. That there might be easier ways to deal with it rather than go through historical preservation and yet keep the integrity of the building. So he's got some ideas. I'm not sure really ready for public comment on those yet. And it's just something that we need to address going forward. Yeah. But just rest assured that we're not ignoring the libraries. Just not a lot of money to dole out. I think we need to find a way to get more. Yeah. Maybe sometime in France, but I don't want the library at the bottom of the town's building with either. Because it's right on the main road. It is an important building for the town. Yeah, understood. Yeah, Jeff. Yeah, I think Jeanette will be asking at the trustees meeting a question as to whether or who has the authority to approve a building. I think it's an intrusive disassembly of the. An exterior wall in a couple of places so that we can see exactly what is there, how it's constructed and. You know, be able to. Diagnose and prescribe. A repair that will shed water in that building. So the question really is the library trustees that have that this termination. The trustees that have all the power and decision making over the library budget. Well, I would think when I think the town took that on back when Charlie Biederman and them. And Danny McIntyre and those guys were on the board. I'd like to read what they had to say about that before we say that the trustees have any. Because I know the town. For whatever reason took over the maintenance of the outside of the building at that time and I don't know what that agreement says or how it was constructed. So I would think we'd want to go back and check the minutes on that. Back then because that was quite a few years ago that that transpired. So I think we should probably go back and check that before we determine that. The trustees actually hold the deed to the building. It was originally deeded to them that they are the owners. The town agreed to take care of maintenance on the exterior, but we've also taken care of maintenance on the interior. There's a there's a lengthy file in the town office on it. So the major renovation that we did within 10 years ago, whatever that that was run through the town budgets. That's a bond that we pay through the town that we are paying. That definitely entwound the town and the library. All right, again to be continued. So wait a minute. Nancy, would you be willing to go through that with me? I will. Tony, do you want to be involved in that too? Sure. Okay, that'd be good to have somebody there from the trustees too. Okay, moving on. I think Jeff has something. Jeff is okay. Go for it. Yeah, I've talked to Jeanette and she is going to provide me with the information she found further information about the weatherization work that was done. So I will get a chance to take a look at that. But I think really in order to understand what's going wrong in that building. And we need to be underneath the cladding around the window and where the upstairs and the first floor join so that we can clearly understand what the why there's leakage there and what we have to do to fix it. Probably that storm the other night drove a little bit of water into that. The right direction. Yeah, yeah. All right, moving on from the library now, everyone agreed? Okay. On to the highway. Thank you, Terry, for picking up some of the slack after Cooter's little mishap there. And they've been off to grab my trucks and more sand because we've been going through it. Yeah, steady as she goes and who's healing from a few 14 stitches in his palm. You may not want to. What happened to him? He suffered a cut on his hand and changing a cutter blade on one of the plows on a nasty cut. Are we checking that sand in ourselves? Yes, we are. It's actually saving a lot of money that way. I saw him go through a couple boats today. So, Terry, you are here. Do you have anything on the utilities front? No. Fire department? Fire department? All right. As you know, in the budget finance committee there, we said about new trucks. So, at some point, I'd like to get firm prices, but I haven't gone to see anybody because, you know, I didn't know where we should have done that. And it's no sense to wait for salesman's time at the end of doing things. Well, the budget that we're talking about is from July 2022 through June, the end of June 2023. Correct. So, that's the time frame. But you can order it before, so you get it in July or August. I think we're just kind of waiting to see how, when we finish up more on the budget, I think, before we make a decision. We don't matter getting this truck in and having a bunch of work done for it. Well, it's, we're talking the... We're talking 30 days. Yeah, at the most. So, we just need to get through the budget business. Oh, like my first few years, so... Oh, yeah, yeah. Like, February, you're going to be able to tell me. Yeah. You're going to be able to tell me. Yeah, you should be able to know. That's what I want, because they aren't going to start making it until now, I think it's mine. I guess the ballpark price of the taxi is like 52,000. Yep. Yep, we have that. So, and then the body will be in another form. Yep. And then everything will take off. This truck can put it on the moon. It's called... Man, I think all that. Because I mean, the case in that truck is really good. Yeah. Getting high is an issue. That's why I'm getting down where I'm staying. You know, after what's going to happen, you know, I don't want the same thing to happen to anyone. I don't want that for the way it is. That truck ain't safe, it's not legal. But it is going to be legal. So, and like I said, the first three quarters of its life was living in a bad place. Right. Yep. You know, there was no way to wash it or anything. Now, the trucks all get washed whether it's two o'clock in the morning or not. That's why I was trying to get washed. Mm-hmm. I'm glad you're not going to practice with it, but I make them do it. Mm-hmm. No, I just want to... Yeah. I just want to keep going on. It's a good practice. Yeah, yeah. All right, so yeah, we should... We're going to start making 2,000.3. You should know before that. I mean, we just are trying to get through the budget process and figure out where we go from there. Yep. All right. Jeff, back to you as the energy coordinator. Do you have something that you'd like to elaborate on? The only thing that I mentioned is on the 6th, we had another meeting with the Rochester area climate initiative. Over 40 people from the hometown area participated in the Zoom. We broke into three groups, looking at the prioritization, if the program has done both in terms of developing ideas and then prioritizing those ideas. And we looked at them for current status and next step. There were probably 10 resource people that were brought in by the Vermont Council on World Development. And 40 participants listed on the Zoom, but I saw at least five to six people where there were two people listening in from the Clinton town area. The areas on the energy side that were of most interest to people were electric vehicle charging, weatherization of existing homes, and working on municipal energy opportunities and siting solar. Those will be energy committee. Green Mountain Power is offered to sponsor a charging station, I believe, outcome of this meeting because they were there at the meeting. And I think after witnessing the focus on that as being a priority, that was pretty quickly that they contacted asking to meet about this. The next day. The next day. Yeah, so that's a pretty quick result. So that's all I have at the moment. Thank you. On to the new business. I want to Martha this going to paper able able ways to be providing their services on Sunday, December 26, instead of Saturday Christmas. So they'll still be here that weekend. And to collect all of your Christmas carnage wrappings and doing I have a question, do you know if because New Year's Day is on Saturday as well, the second of January as well. No, they didn't mention that. I think they'll be here Saturday. Saturday New Year's Day. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, I just wondered. There'll be a breathalyzer out. All right. And we also have an application for a driveway permit. And that is on 1274 Townline Road, Larry Roche property. And Cooter had looked at that and I think Dave you're going to be doing the work. And it specified you're using a 24 inch 40 foot culvert. But Cooter has concerns out there. You may end up running into ledge there. And then if that's the case, you'd want to size it down to the 18 inch. First, the ditch is already about 40 feet. So I think Cooter's thinking where his old driveway is. That's not it. Oh, okay. It's down the way to 100 yards. And the ditch is probably armpit height. I would jump into it. All right. So it shouldn't be a problem. It shouldn't be a problem at all. Yeah. So it's going to be plenty of cover over it. It's about 40 feet. Because if somebody is going to have to come out there, they don't have much talent on their own shoulders. The trees are tight. So they're going to have to really do it all the time. So yeah. No, I don't. It's a deep ditch right there. So I think a lot of it's there. All right. Yeah. That's good. That's where it's logging. All right. So I'm good with that. Second. I second it. All in favor. All right. All right. Okay. I think this is good. Diane, we already talked about. And the end of the year closing dates for the town office. That's all that posted on the door. But what I should mention that. So the 24th is the holiday. Yeah. And the following week, we're just going to shut the office. So we can get caught up with our books and. Yeah. End of year. End of year and new year. So big close for the week following the 24th. Oh yeah. We can. I mean, we can be reached by email or by phone. If anybody needs anything. But off to be closed for walking. Yep. All right. Okay. Thank you. Did you have something? I suspect we'll have a budget meeting that week too. And I would be the 29th. That'll be fine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Excuse me. I just want to make sure I got this correct about the closing. Julie. Am I correct that it's close for walk-ins for December 24th and the following week to 27th through 31st. But did you say you could call people could call. Yes. Or not. Call or email. Call or email. Yeah. Thanks. But the 24th were totally closed. And the. Okay. But that was second for the week after they can call or email. Yeah. We have a. We have a select. We have a select so meeting that Monday night. Yeah. Right. All right. Anybody comments from the public at large. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, hi everybody. I want to do a comment as the. COVID task force chair and I apologize. I didn't get my thoughts together in time to. Ask to get on the agenda. So I thought I'd. Share my thoughts in the public comment. I got two points of information to share in the. And the recommendation. First is that the health department data for Rochester. Is now showing that we've had. 12 new COVID cases between November 17th. And December the 8th. So that's about one every two days. Actually a little bit faster than that. And there's a chart on the. Health department website that shows infection rates by town. We are the top of the charts. The darkest blue color if you're familiar with that. So we're going to go back to that. And then we're going to go back to the. Graphic. Thanksgiving gatherings and colder weather are probably the. Likely. Reasons for that increase. It's just human nature. And now we've got Christmas and New Year's coming. And. And those typically include people visiting from out of the area as well. So. I think we should expect increased infection rates in the very near future to help protect each other. The other point of information is the Omicron variant, which I know we've all been reading and hearing about it's spreading exponentially across Europe. And is explosively growing. Doubling every three to four days. It's in the United States and 30 states. For sure. And it's probably in every state by this point. So, you know, that's showing to be an even more contagious form of the virus then than the Delta version. So, you know, protection against COVID is a layered thing. There's no one single bullet. To the extent that we can do all these things simultaneously, vaccination, boosting, masking, distancing, all that helps. And I'd like to ask the select board to consider adopting a motion to strongly recommend that local places where people gather the. Restaurants, the stores, et cetera. Put signs up to. To tell people or ask people to mask up to come into to use those businesses. I'm not recommending a mask mandate. I don't think that would do anything more than a strong recommendation. And. You know, I don't think we want to be putting business staff in the role of mask bouncers. But I do think that, you know, a strong statement from the select board could be helpful. It's just one more thing, you know, on top of everything else that people can be doing to help protect each other. And try to stem the flow. But I think it's pretty clear that the winter time, because people tend to be indoors and the holiday. You know, I think it's a good cheer that everybody longs for and getting together is, you know, has the risk to it as well. And we're, you know, we're well into that. And it's likely to get worse before it gets better. Vic. Yeah. Do you have any way of getting any sort of. Statistics on. What percentage of people in the area here of the Rochester area are vaccinated or. Yeah. It's on the same website. It's high. It's 80 to 90% somewhere in that range. Right. And, you know, there's good news out there too. I mean, the pediatric. As young as five years old can now get vaccinated. And teenagers as young as 16, I think are eligible to get a booster shot. There are therapeutic pills that Pfizer and Merck are. Going through the regulatory process that should be available within, you know, the next month or so. There's a much more availability of at home testing. People can do. So there's, there's more tools available. And they can, you know, this is just one more thing. I might do. I know the Rochester and Stockbridge schools were planning. Vaccination events, you know, for, for the kids. So. Ken Lee, you look, is that a question for me? You're on mute. Are there any statistics on how many infections are. With vaccinated people versus unvaccinated. I think there is on a statewide basis. I'm not sure about more locally. Thank you. I'll look it up. I had something different when it's my turn. Okay. Anyway, so that's, that's. My comment for tonight. Unless anybody has any question. So. Is that something we'd need to. We're making a official decision to do that. That we'd have to have on the agenda. To. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. I want to give you a chance to think about it and discuss it. Yeah. But. Again, I apologize for not bringing this up before the agenda was put together, but. Yeah. Is it too late to put that on the budget and finance agenda? No. No, we say, well, that's, um, I mean, is that the proper place we could discuss? Statement right here and now covers it. Yeah. We endorse it or not. Officially. He's our representative for that. He's made the statement. So yeah, I mean, I think we can all say that we agree completely with him and you know, whether we can formally. Um, you know, take action that, that hasn't been. That we agree with them. Yeah. Vic, if you would be willing to just jot down a. A. Sample. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think we can all say that we agree completely with them and you know, whether we can formally. Um, you know, take action that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sample. You think would be a good statement that we could. Um, the town could then distribute to the. The. Businesses and places that public gather. It's like the park house and. You know, Pierce Hall. That'd be, you know. Stories. Yeah. And you can also, uh, they put it on front porch forum, which seems to be, you know, the, the, the main venue nowadays for information. But we do it on night rheumat associative programs. Sometimes we don't get a date to use that and we're like, I don't know fine decision making. That happens. Isn't exactly how we, you know, It's ice running. You know, the company has made up those lists. We tagged that. Something about those things. But it sounds also that your, Your encouraging people in their private homes to be very cautious. Yes. And that's, that's still the posted recommendation from the health department. Yeah. Same mold advice you always get the church. Don't talk to strangers. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? It's got public comment up there. Yep. I do. Thank you. I just wanted to quick call everyone's attention to a new release of funds announced on a WCAX article by housing commissioner Josh Haniford. $5 million coming down the line for mostly Vermont homeless initiative, specifically for renovating existing structures and homes for probably mostly homeless. I realize we don't have a lot of homeless problem here in Rochester, but it may be possible to access some of those funds for some of the reusable and renovatable residences around the area. Thank you. Anyone else? I guess I entertain a motion to adjourn. Second. Thank you all and thank you everybody for your hard work.